NEWSWEEK: What was your role in the standoff between the British and the Iranians?We sided with the British. We helped them in many, many ways. We were mediating all along [and] even tried to lobby the Arab foreign ministers at the Arab summit in Riyadh. But we couldn’t get that far. We didn’t get much support. [The Iranians] made the right decision by releasing [the captured troops]. In fact, [Iran] realized that public opinion was turning against them. And we were very honest speaking to them. We said you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
There’s been speculation that the British troops’ captivity was drawn out because of this competition between power centers in Iran. Is there a crisis within the Iranian leadership?It could be. It seems in my view that really the Iranian action was a deliberate decision. It wasn’t coincidence. I believe it was a deliberate decision to achieve certain goals “that if you harm us we can harm you.
Was any kind of deal struck to get the British released?There was no deal. Even that diplomat [Jalal Sharafi,, an Iranian second secretary released by Iraq this week after two months in captivity], there was no deal, no connection, [it was] two separate cases.
So there wasn’t any kind of deal for Sharafi’s release?People try to link everything here, so people think this was a deal. But believe me, there was no deal whatsoever. He came from nowhere, nobody knew when he would be released. Nobody knew up to now who abducted him-. Those who were responsible for abducting him, the doers, were Iraqis. But they were acting beyond the government policy.
Is it possible the Iraqi Special Forces commandos were involved in Sharafi’s kidnapping?I don’t know, to be honest with you. But there are some strong indications that they were linked with the Mukhabarat [Iraq’s intelligence agency]. People tried to say, well the Mukhabarat is very close with the American agencies. [But] when we confronted the chief of Mukhabarat, he denied it.
Have you seen anything that would incriminate the five Iranians detained by American forces in [the Iraqi city of] Erbil last December? They may have been collecting intelligence and so on. But some of the things [the Americans] say is very wild “[that] from Erbil [the detainees] have been running the Sunni insurgency in Anbar and other [places and] providing IEDs [Improvised Explosive Device] or EFPs [Explosively Formed Projectiles]. Really they couldn’t smuggle these things in that area-. Intelligence gathering, yes. But, in Erbil, to support the Shiite militias in Baghdad? It doesn’t make sense.
Did the Americans have one-on-one meetings with the Iranians at the recent Baghdad conference?They did speak to each other face to face, directly, but not in a separate meeting. In the meeting room, yes. Not just across the table “they came to each other, spoke to each other. Those delegations were very powerful. It was not just deputies. After that meeting the whole regional atmosphere, the people’s morale here really was changed positively. The chemistry, the interaction, very smooth, very straight-talking in that meeting. We mediated between them sometimes when they tried to shout at each other [laughing].
What did the Americans and Iranians discuss about Iraq?Actually they were very close [laughing]. I said I’m not surprised your positions are so close on Iraq “support for the government, stabilization.
title: “Man In The Middle” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-08” author: “Daniel Brumble”
Publicly discredited and sometimes assailed by what he calls “the black dog of depression,” Adams is nonetheless too valuable for anyone to ditch. He remains the essential interlocutor, bargaining for the IRA with the British, Irish and American governments. He still speaks for the IRA to the Protestant Unionists in Northern Ireland, to less militant Catholics on both sides of the border and to the 40 million Irish-Americans who infuse Ulster’s struggle with cash and political clout. Last week, in his most extensive interview since the bombs began to go off again (box, page 36), Adams spoke with NEWSWEEK for more than an hour in the Belfast office of Sinn Fein, the aboveground political wing of the outlawed IRA. He said he wants the Clinton administration to give him a visa to visit the United States again in March for fund raising and fence mending around St. Patrick’s Day. He said British Prime Minister John Major also has to deal with him. “The irony of this situation is that he needs me,” Adams said. “If he wants to put the peace process back together, he has to have a bridge.”
With quiet American mediation, a new plan was already in the works to get the peace process moving again. It could be announced as early as this week, in a summit between Major and his Irish coun-terpart, John Bruton. The evolving package contained a series of steps, including elections in Northern Ireland, that would lead eventually to all-party negotiations. But in his NEWSWEEK interview, Adams turned it down. He demanded “all-party talks as soon as pos-sible,” adding: “All these other matters, like elections, should be part of that dialogue . . . not preconditions to talks.” And even if his terms were accepted, Adams admitted, he wasn’t sure he could persuade the IRA to declare a new ceasefire.
Whatever hope exists for a revival of the peace process could easily be destroyed by another IRA bombing. “I turn on the TV or radio in the morning with dread,” says Niall O’Dowd, publisher of the New York-based Irish Voice newspaper, which carries articles by Adams. The IRA’s ruling body, the seven-member Army Council, apparently voted to end the ceasefire as long ago as last October, leaving open the precise timing of the operation. O’Dowd claims that on “at least two” occasions, Adams “stopped the IRA from resuming the bombing” last fall. Administration sources agree; they say Bill Clinton’s triumphant November visit to Ireland was arranged precisely because the White House knew the ceasefire was unraveling and hoped a pep talk from the president would save it.
Clinton’s visit only postponed the resumption of the bombing. Adams was trapped in a starkly simple dilemma: a year and a half ago, he persuaded his colleagues in the IRA leadership that a ceasefire would quickly be rewarded with all-party talks. It didn’t happen, and eventually Adams was outvoted by advocates of violence. Although he lost the argument, he remains useful to the IRA, and there is no sign that his life is in danger. Standing on a street corner in Catholic west Belfast one night last week, he looked relaxed and cheerful, waving and smiling to motorists who shouted words of encouragement and honked their horns–and posing for pictures with passersby. Catholic Belfast still overwhelmingly favors a ceasefire and regards Adams as both its champion and its biggest celebrity.
Still, more gray has crept into Adams’s hair over the past year, and there’s no doubt that he was humiliated when the IRA resumed bombing. The moments of depression that he admits to come when he is not out in public, buoyed by adulation. The British accuse him of perfidy, and the Americans are disappointed. He had developed a particularly close relationship with Anthony Lake, Clinton’s national-security adviser, who came to the conclusion, U.S. sources say, that if Gerry Adams did not exist, someone would have to invent him. After the bomb went off on Feb. 9, the sources say, Lake brief-ly considered not returning Adams’s phone calls. But eventually Clinton’s advisers decided that cutting Adams off would do more harm than good.
Like Adams, John Major has political problems that limit his room for maneuvering. The House of Commons was scheduled to hold a debate early this week on a scathing report that accused his government of deliberately misleading Parliament about the sale of military equipment to Iraq in the late 1980s. The report helped persuade another disgruntled Conservative M.P. to defect to the opposition last week. That reduced Major’s margin in Commons to only two seats out of 651. He wants to stay in office as long as he can–his term could run until May 1997–and to do so, he may have to rely on support from the nine Ulster Unionist members, making compromise difficult.
What Adams needs most is a specific date for all-party talks. “The rest is negotiable,” says O’Dowd. When Adams last visited Washington, 10 days before the IRA resumed bombing, Clinton and his top aides urged him to accept an election, according to U.S. sources. Now Adams wants to come to New York for an uplifting series of events, including a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser tentatively scheduled for March 12. That effort is crucial to Sinn Fein, which raised $1.3 million in America last year.
Britain opposes a U.S. visa for Adams, as it did in 1994, when Clinton first admitted him and broke the stalemate in Northern Ireland. “We’re not lobbying, because our views are known,” says one of Major’s senior aides. “They were known the last time.” Some American politicians, including New York’s Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, also think Adams should be refused entry. The administration is likely to grant a visa, as long as there are no further bombing atrocities. But Washington will put heavy pressure on Adams. Without an IRA ceasefire, his fund-raising activities will probably be curtailed, and he isn’t likely to be granted a high-profile meeting with Clinton. The purpose of the pressure will not be to punish Adams but to strengthen him in his dealings with the IRA, by showing that a price has to be paid for ending the ceasefire. “There’s no alternative to Gerry Adams,” says Peter King, a Republican congressman from New York and a longtime supporter of Sinn Fein. Probably not, but Adams still has to show that he can talk the IRA back onto a path toward peace.
The explosion aboard a double-decker bus was only the latest in a string of IRA bombings that have unnerved Londoners for decades. Recent blasts: ..MR.-
July 20, 1990 Stock Exchange Feb. 18, 1991 Victoria Station Jan. 10, 1992 Downing St. April 24, 1993 Bishopsgate Feb. 9, 1996 Docklands Feb. 19, 1996 Bus Bomb ..MR0-
title: “Man In The Middle” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-18” author: “Deborah Blevins”
His proximity to power explains why Lindsey has been both a target of Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr and a player in the emerging scandal over Indonesian campaign money. As the second term begins, Lindsey is the archetypal Clintonite: facing ethical questions and huge legal bills. Though never charged, Lindsey was named an ““unindicted co-conspirator’’ in an Arkansas-campaign case last year, and owes his lawyers about $600,000.
He has other troubles, too. Before the election, Lindsey was responsible for the White House claim that the president had only a handful of ““social’’ meetings with James Riady, an Indonesian-born banker and longtime Clinton contributor. In fact Riady visited the White House 15 to 20 times and talked about Asian trade issues on at least some occasions. Now Republicans are interested in Lindsey’s links to the Indonesians: Lindsey’s former Little Rock law firm, Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, represents the Riadys in Arkansas. Meanwhile, the DNC has returned $1.5 million raised by John Huang, a former Riady employee, Clinton appointee and DNC fund raiser. The FBI is considering a criminal probe.
Ultimately, Starr may see Lindsey as a way to get to the First Family. But when Starr went after Lindsey in Arkansas (and lost), the president publicly stood by his old friend. It’s not something Clinton does often–and Lindsey knows it.
title: “Man In The Middle” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-29” author: “Joshua French”
WEYMOUTH: The United States is concerned that the shelling across Lebanon’s border may lead to a wider war. HARIRI: The Lebanese government doesn’t want any escalation, and we are doing all we can to keep the border stable. It is very hard because of what is going on in the West Bank and [also because] part of our country, Shebaa Farms, is occupied.
Since Israel pulled out of your country in May 2000, Hizbullah has continued to fire across the border at Israel. They did not withdraw totally.
Israel did withdraw 100 percent, according to the secretary-general of the United Nations. Lebanon has a disagreement with the U.N. on this point. The U.N. says that Israel complied with Resolution 425 and that Lebanon has no right to claim Shebaa Farms. But we say that Shebaa Farms is Lebanese. [Israel says it’s part of Syria and should be included in negotiations with Damascus.]
But hasn’t there been shelling of Israel outside the Shebaa Farms area? In recent days some Palestinians tried to shell Israel over the Lebanese border, but we captured them and put them in jail.
Three Israeli soldiers were kidnapped last year. Yes, because Israel is still detaining 18 Lebanese, and they [Hizbullah] want to exchange them for the prisoners. They were kidnapped inside Shebaa Farms.
Will the force used by Hizbullah help induce Israel to come to a peace settlement? I don’t know. If [the border] is too quiet, Israel doesn’t make peace. If there is big unrest between Israel and the Palestinians, they say they cannot make a peaceful agreement because of the violence. I feel the Israeli people want to make peace with the Arabs but don’t know how. The Saudi peace plan has been adopted by all the Arab countries. This is a big opportunity. I think we have to concentrate on it, not on who shelled who.
But former Israeli prime minister Barak offered Arafat roughly 95 percent of the West Bank, three quarters of East Jerusalem and much of the Jordan Valley in exchange for peace. Arafat said no and turned to violence, so what makes you think the Palestinian Authority wants peace? Why only 95 percent? Why didn’t he offer 100 percent? Why [only] three quarters of [East] Jerusalem?
Many Israelis believe that the Arabs don’t want Israel to exist. There is a minority in the Arab world that doesn’t want this. But the vast majority of the Arabs want to make a serious peace with Israel.
Some people say that Syria controls your country. They don’t control, they help. You forget about the 300,000 Palestinians we have. It is not easy to control the situation, and the Syrians are helping us.
Do you want those Palestinians to return to Israel or to a Palestinian state? It is not our decision where they go, but we don’t want to keep them in Lebanon.
Are they dangerous? They destabilize the Lebanese community.
It is said that Lebanon’s economy verges on collapse. We have a high public-debt ratio to GDP, but the economy itself is doing fine.
Under these circumstances, isn’t it crucial to avoid a war? The message I want to deliver to the American people [is] that Lebanon wants to live in peace with Israel. We don’t see any use for violence. It leads nowhere.
Do you endorse President Bush’s sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to the region? He should have sent him before. Everybody has to put pressure on to achieve peace.
You mean pressure Israel? We want the United States to talk Israel into withdrawing from the West Bank and Gaza.
